Central America

Behind the Smile.

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family

• Melchor de Mencos, Belize •

Meet the Aguado household. A place where love runs deep…simple are the joys…and wide are the smiles that shield the scars aching to heal beneath. 

Here we see one of the effects of inaccessible health care. Where fathers lose their lives to otherwise treatable diseases, leaving two mothers and seven children with little more than the lingering fragrance of memories.

Here we also see a strength undeniable. Where the youngest to the eldest come together to care for one another…encourage one another…support one another. 

And finally, we see ‘little Juan,’ whose palpable nonchalance tells you really all that you need to know:

He is now the man of the family. 

🙂

Categories: Central America, Humanitarian Work, Photography

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33 replies »

  3. I have seen pics of “similar” circumstances from my daughter (worked in Mexico) and her daughter (worked in Rwanda). A message which comes from them is so loud and clear.

    – Happiness has nothing to do with big screen tv’s, multiple cars, big houses and exotic vacations.

    We, as a culture, should be embarrassed by our drive for more, bigger and better. We should be ashamed that the same drive is fragmenting our culture and making it totally self focused. We should question why our highly sophisticated education system is totally not addressing the basic pre-requisites for self contentment and happiness. We should also question why there are poverty stricken families, living in very traumatic circumstances, who show more contentment with their lives, than the greater percentage of our own culture!

    We can learn so much from them, but are we prepared to?

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  7. Reasons to hope are often so few for so many. Yet with love and hard work and forgiveness, people in the hardest of circumstances still find hope, even happiness. It is a marvel to me. I hope for little Juan and his family.

    Reply

    • I completely agree. It was seeing this kind of joy and hope within others that made these types of experiences life-changing for me. And these people will also forever be in my heart. 🙂

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